Live and Let Di

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 92)

 
Thirteen Things I DID in Mexico

Last week I shared my list of Thirteen Things I Would NOT Be Doing in Mexico. I am happy to report that I didn't do any of them. Including, to everyone's surprise, even touching a computer. My iPhone stayed in the glove compartment in my car at the airport...our longest separation to date.

So I'm sure you are just dying to know what I DID in Mexico. I will share these thirteen things in pictures!

1. Witnessed rare moments like this...my kids getting along!
2. Experienced nature...like here, where my son is dive-bombed by a pelican!
 
3. Enjoyed watching the Grandfather/Grandson and Father/Son bonding that took place.
4. Did a tequila shot or two (or three or four) with our personal waiter, Guillermo, constantly at the ready with a bottle. We even got my MOM to try a shot (although hers was more like a sip).

5. Sat on one of these wonderful things for a couple hours just reading with my daughter. Later that afternoon, I sat on one for an hour or so just talking with my Mom, talking about family history, sharing stories.

 

6. Went for an early morning walk with my husband because we were still on East Coast time, so waking up there at 6:15 felt decadently late. I was posing to take advantage of the flattering light of morning. Hurley was posing in an homage to the nearby topless beach.

7. Ate this (the Americano) every single morning for breakfast. It was kind of like Eggs Benedict, but instead of being served atop an English muffin, it was served over ham, potatoes and onions.

8. Before the big anniversary dinner, we had a cocktail party in our room. The hotel catered it, showing once again that they couldn't do enough for us to make our trip special. My parents were good sports as we had them don a cheesy bridal veil and bowtie. My Dad did a speech that made us laugh (few of us knew that my parents would never have met if Dad didn't fail Algebra II as a Junior!) and made us cry (as he talked about his own grandmother telling him at his grandfather's funeral that she lost her buddy, her best friend and how he really didn't understand then what she meant...but now he does) and laugh some more (when he told of some tough times in their marriage when they stayed together because of the kids...because neither one of them wanted custody!) Mom gave her own speech which mostly made us teary as she talked about the family she always dreamed of having and how we were it!

9. Got my parents to smooch at dinner by tapping our knives on our glasses. The whole restaurant applauded!

10. Experienced the rare moments when all of us were together.

11. No words needed!

12. Made new best friends...everyone who knows me knows that I have never met a stranger and everywhere I go I make new best friends. There were many. Todd, the NetJet pilot from Dallas who sat next to me from Raleigh to Charlotte. Ben, the former Marine who served in Iraq, who sat next to me on the way from Charlotte to Raleigh. VERY cool thing...I offered to buy him a drink and the flight attendants said, no, THEY would take care of it to thank him for his service to our country.

And our best new friends are Zara and Stephan from Austria. We shared a few meals and a few drinks with them. Their daughter, Paulina, was adorable and well-behaved. She and Haley spent a lot of time together. I think they want to fly her over to Austria to be Paulina's au pair!

 

13. Canoodled with my husband...inspired by the parrots!

Hasta la vista!

Di

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 91)

 Thirteen Things I Won't Be Doing in Mexico

We are leaving for Mexico on Thursday to celebrate my parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary, so I am posting this early. Sometimes I think it's become more the norm to have 3 or 4 marriages than to make it to 50 years! I'm pretty sure they still love each other...but it could be that they are both really determined people...and when they say they are going to do something, dammit, they do it! Whatever the case...I'm glad they made it and glad we are all going to be there to celebrate. (By the way...please forgive me if I don't visit your TT until I get back next week!)

But, while in Mexico, there will be 13 things that I will NOT be doing:

1. Losing weight, thinking about weight, exercising portion control or making healthy food choices. Isn't it better to start a vacation with realistic expectations?

2. Editing. Anything.

3. Going topless at the beach. Really. It's best for everyone.

4. Mentally making my shopping list for when we get home.

5. Worrying about embarrassing my children. Let them worry about it.

6. Drinking the water. Margaritas don't have water in them, do they?

7. Hanging out at Club Med with Barb. Those were the days! 

8. Reading Faulkner. Sorry, Andy, but a trip to Mexico cries out for much trashier literature.

9. Keeping up with the stock market. It will be whatever it is when we get home.

10. Worrying about Toby. He is spending the week with a hot 19-year old, so he won't even care that we are gone. (Toby is my dog, you perverts!)

 11. Making dinner, running errands, carpooling, paying bills or going to the grocery store.

12. Checking Facebook constantly or answering e-mails.

But I WILL be:

13. Having a great time with my parents, my sister, brother-in-law, husband and kids...all in the same place at the same time for a pretty special event!

Di

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 90)

Thirteen Things I Love About My Insurance Company

This week's entry is an ode to my insurance company. Since I don't want to get busted for slander or anything, let's give it a pseudonym...True Floss, True Wheeled. When I was younger, I used to love laying on the floor of my parents' room, talking to my friends for hours. Now my phone conversations with friends are limited to five minute snippets while we are driving hither and yon or slightly longer conversations while we are folding laundry or emptying the dishwasher. The only hour-long phone conversations I have anymore are with my insurance company.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Wait a minute, this is supposed to be Thursday Thirteen. Do you think I can limit myself to thirteen items?

1.    The card is kind of pretty.

2.    They don't bore me by consistently paying the same amount for the same things.

3.    They've developed a new counting or accounting system whereby I've spent thousands, yet they only count $370.12 toward my "out-of-pocket" expenses. I'm hoping they start calculating our premiums using a similar system.

4.    They keep things focused by only being able to talk about my situation on a claim-by-claim basis.

5.    They keep me from worrying about taxing things like the "big picture" by discussing individual claims rather than looking at the whole year.

6.    They protect me from my doctor who has a PhD and all that kind of stuff by keeping her from frittering away  medical judgment to decide what medicines I should take in what quantities.

7.    They ensure that my pill-taking never becomes boring by insisting I get 30 pills and cut them in half instead of 60 pills.

...sorry, that's about as far as I can get. Elizabeth Barrett Browning managed to come up with about 20 things in her famous ode. I suspect her subject was NOT True Floss, True Wheeled.

Di

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 88)

"The customer is always right." Marshall Field (1834-1906)

"The customer is always screwed." Di (1962 - the next time I have to deal with AT&T)

Thirteen Extremes of Customer Service

1. AT&T - The only reason I have my cell phone service with AT&T is because of me deep, abiding love of the iPhone. Yesterday I spent 68 minutes on the phone with AT&T customer service while driving 30 miles to the closest AT&T corporate store and while standing in the store. Plus I spent too much time talking to the manager of the store. Apparently the corporate stores, the 800 number customer service and the non-corporate stores are like completely different entities...argh....

2. Jersey Mike's, Fuquay Varina, NC - Puts Subway to shame. There's a kid who works there who can simultaneously put the extras on one sub, while putting the meat on the next sub, while taking the order for the next person in line.

3. The place my friend bought his boat - He left and got on 95 only to find that the boat was shaking on the trailer. They came and fixed it and took off.

4. The place my friend bought his boat - When the wheel of the trailer came off a few miles down the road, they brought him a BRAND NEW TRAILER with their apologies for his inconvenience.

5. Apple - I've said it over and over and over again. I have NEVER had a bad experience with Apple whether by phone or in an Apple store.

6. Assaggio's Pizza, Fuquay Varina, NC - Order a pizza by phone. Go there to pick it up. It's an eat-in place, with no table service, so the eat-in people have to order at the cash register...yes, the same cash register where the take-out pizza is picked up. So I'm standing there seeing my pizza on the counter, cooling off by the minute, while the Mom in front of me is discussing with her 4 year old whether he would like plain spaghetti or ziti!!!

7. David Anthony's, Fuquay Varina, NC - Best. Gift. Shop. Ever. I have never gone in there and not been able to find something for the person for whom I am shopping. Plus, they wrap for free and their hand-tied, curled ribbons make the gift extra beautiful!

8. Most DMVs - Sometimes I think the employees get bonuses based on how many people they piss off or how many people they turn away because they didn't dot the "i" on their signature.

9. DMV, Angier, NC - A little farther to drive, a much more pleasant experience. Thanks to Monte who told me about it or I would have been cooling my heals at one of those other DMVs.

10. Dickens Insurance, Fuquay Varina, NC - And speaking of Monte, when I needed a new proof of insurance, he asked if I wanted to come by and get it or have him drop it off at my house since he was going to be headed this way anyway!

11. Harris Teeter - They really do have good customer service. But I always wonder why the cashier asks, "Did you find everything today?" I mean, there are three people behind me. What would happen if I said, "No, I couldn't find the arugula and I couldn't find Adobo...it's a Cuban spice." Would she leave her post and go find these things for me while everyone waited?

12. Starbucks - Sometimes I forget to order my chai iced. OK, here's my order - Grande Non-fat Iced Chai. With all of that, I sometimes forget an adjective. So when they present me with a hot chai and I say, "Oh no...I meant to order it iced!" they don't roll their eyes. They don't get irritated. They turn around and make my order the way I wanted it...even though it was MY mistake that I ordered it wrong.

13. Four Oaks Bank, Fuquay Varina, NC - A truly old-fashioned bank where everyone knows your name. Since we've had our construction loan, mortgage, checking account and construction account there, I have had the pleasure of dealing with everyone from the tellers to the vice president. Special kudos to Theresa, who not only helped me with some special requests during construction, but who was selected the Best Teller in Fuquay Varina by the Fuquay Varina Independent!

See, you thought it was going to be 13 examples of horrible customer service that Di is going to bitch about. But no! My low tolerance for horrible customer service makes me really appreciate the good stuff.

Di

 

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 87)

Thirteen Great Things About Finally Being in Our New House!!!

With a very special thanks to Natalie who sent a lovely comment saying she missed my posts. Thanks for the inspiration!

1. Every day does not require a new decision about what kind of lighting, what kind of cabinets, who needs to be paid, where to place the cable outlets, what color paint, etc.

2. My friends - everyone has been so helpful. We had great help moving, especially the biggest surprise, our next-door neighbor Michael who worked non-stop with the most amazing energy.

Michael and his Mom, Shirley...who is the BEST next-door neighbor anyone could hope for.

3. My Adirondack chairs FINALLY got painted, thanks to Pilar, who apparently LOVES to do that kind of stuff:

And Shirley helped pick the colors!

4. Two people who have been there every step of the way...Tony who has been my handyman and right-hand man when crises arose when my husband was out of town...and Pilar who has done everything INCLUDING taking my phone away from me so I could relax and play golf one day!

5. The beautiful touch of fresh flowers brought by Leigh and "Flipper."

 

 

 

 

Who BOTH incidentally LOVE my dog, Toby:

6. My granite countertops...and the great perch they make for my son and sneaking up place for my daughter:

7. My indulgence:

I'm visualizing cold winter days, snuggled up in bed with a book with my fireplace going!

8. And on the flip-side, ceiling fans everywhere. I'm probably perimenopausal so my temperature can change at the drop of a hat. The fans help...otherwise I'd have my air conditioning set on 69 or something.

9. Fewer and fewer things on my list to check off!

10. Being able to have a dinner party...in a dining room!

Prepared by my daughter's friend Courtney. And no, the wine glass does NOT belong with the underaged young man. It's mine and it just got in the picture.

11. My dream room, my sanctuary. It's not done yet...still boxes and boxes of books. But I have it set up so I can actually work here instead of on the kitchen table!

12.The view...so beautiful when I remember our first house where the view was the neighbor's fence. My dog loves having the run of the yard.

13. Being able to say, "Home Sweet Home" without adding "for now."

Di

 

 

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 86)

Thirteen Things I Learned at the Brad Paisley Concert

My husband, kids and I got the Country MegaTicket for the summer which gets us into eight different country concerts at Walnut Creek Amphitheater over the summer. (By the way, do you pronounce it am-fi-theater or do you feel that the "h" is silent, making it amp-i-theater?) Every time we go, I learn something new and it seems like this week I learned more than usual.

1. If Alison Krauss appears on the upper level of the stage singing "Whiskey Lullabye" with Brad Paisley, she is just a hologram.

2. I have a lot of fun doing stuff with my husband and son (and my daughter if she'll stay and hang out with us!)

3. My daughter's friend Courtney claims to not like country music...but if I looked as good as she does in a cowboy hat, I'd LEARN to love it. My pink-cowboy-hatted daughter looks fab AND loves the music.

4. The natural drama that prevails in the life of a teen is exacerbated at a concert. I'm (fortunately) not talking about my daughter here. But I saw lots of crying and angry carrying on as I navigated the young people on the way to the bathroom.

5. Outside of every country music concert, they should post a life-sized poster of a girl in short-shorts and cowboy boots, in a heap on the floor, her friend holding her hair back as she pukes. The cute cowboy-boot & short-shorted girls should see on the way in what they could end up looking like by the end of the night. It's very sad.

6. People are REALLY nice...especially here in the South. We had our friends with us and their 9 year old daughter. I went up to get water and saw that they offered a soda in a souvenir cup. I was pretty sure my friends didn't want her all hopped up on sugar, so I asked how much it would be to just buy the cup. The lady said it was $6 whether it was filled with soda or not. So, of course, being a sap, I bought it. When I turned to walk away, the guy behind me stuck $6 in the cup and said, "That's for you...you shouldn't have had to pay that much when you didn't even get anything in it." How's that for a random act of kindness?

7. Jewel likes to yodel. There are lots of people who like to hear her yodel. I am not one of them.

8. If you try to avoid the long line for the ladies' room by going in the men's room, security will throw you out. I swear that I only know this from overhearing it in the bathroom line. 25 years ago, I would have known from personal experience.

9. Some people should really think twice before going shirtless at a concert:

10. Some people take great pictures of themselves (my friends Shirley and Gary):

11. Most high school kids at the concert do not seem to want to hang out with their parents. We saw Haley exactly once and Shirley's son Michael exactly none.

12. The probability of rain is inversely proportional to the amount of rain gear you bring: 87-cent ponchos from Wal-Mart (check), large garbage bags for under the blanket (check), hooded raincoats (check), two umbrellas (check)...amount of rain...NONE!!!

13. I have even MORE fun with my husband and son if I'm wearing a cowboy hat!

Di

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 85)

Thirteen Firsts

1. First Job - McDonald's in New Hartford, NY at age 16. $2.65 per hour. My parents still say no one at that McDonald's has done a better job at keeping the drive-thru moving!

2. First Blog Post -I started my blog on August 14, 2006. It was originally called Di's Book Blog, etc. I thought it would be all about books and that most of my posts would be book reviews. The first one was a review of A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity by Kathleen Gilles Seidel.

3. First Blog Read - I never even read a blog until I read Maternally Challenged by Tracy Thompson, the wonderful author of The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children and Struggling with Depression (reviewed here in my second blog post). It was this blog that inspired me to start mine.

4. First Love - His name was John. He was in ninth grade and was a JV football player. I was in 7th grade. He rode my bus home from school. One day a girl on my bus said, "My cousin thinks you're cute." I asked who her cousin was and it was John. The next day he asked me to sit with him. It was unrequited...we flirted for several years including a moment emblazoned on my brain when I was wearing my cheerleading uniform and he was wearing his football uniform. After a big win one Friday night, he came up to the cheerleading bus, picked me up and spun me around in celebration. I thought I was in heaven!

5. First Anne Lamott Book - Everyone who knows me knows that I worship Anne Lamott. Her books speak a truth to me that resonates in my soul. Hyperbole? Maybe...maybe not. The first book I read was Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year. It was recommended by my friend Barb who wasn't even a Mom at the time. Once I read it, I was hooked!

6. First Trip to Europe - In early November, 2000, right around election day, my husband said, "Hey, want to go to Paris for Thanksgiving?" My high school 25th reunion was coming up that weekend and I had been toying with the idea of going. Then I thought, "Hmmm...a beautiful weekend in Paris with my husband or hanging out with a bunch of people I didn't like that much back in high school." Easy decision. It was the first of many wonderful travel experiences with my husband.

7. First House - Hurley and I took $800 from the money we received as wedding gifts and bought a king-sized bed. The rest we stashed away, saving for our first house. We saved for over a year and in the meantime were displaced from our rental house by Hurricane Andrew. Almost a year and a half after our wedding, with me a couple months pregnant, we bought our first house. 1,800 sq. ft. Three bedrooms. Two bathrooms. We thought it was so enormous that we would get lost in it. When we called out to one another from the various rooms, the sound would echo off the walls.

8. First Pet - Soon after we bought our first house, I came home from work and found my husband on the patio, snuggling an adorable brown bundle. He was Doberman. We named him Garth (after Garth Brooks...my husband had just discovered country music). He was with us for 13 wonderful years. We still miss him!

9. First Time Skiing - I grew up in central New York, where winter wasn't so much a season as a way of life. But somehow I made it through without ever trying downhill skiing. So, at the ripe old age of 36, my husband convinced me that I should actually ski on our trip to Crested Butte, Colorado rather than lounging by a fire reading a book (which was my vision). I did it. I even occasionally managed to get off the chair lift WITHOUT falling down! It was fun. But all in all, I'd rather go to Paris!

10. First Real Friend - My Mom often told me that if you could count your friends on the fingers of one hand, you should count yourself as lucky. I had a lot of friends in high school and college, but it wasn't until my friendship with Amy, who I met in college, solidified over years that I truly knew what friendship was. She is my soulmate. There is nothing that I can't talk to her about. She defines the word friend.

11. First Broken Bone - I've broken the occasional toe over the years, but I'll never forget breaking my ankle in 6th grade. I was in a track meet doing the high jump. Somehow when I cleared the bar, I slipped off the mat and broke my ankle. I had to walk for 6th grade graduation wearing a walking cast that really did not match my cute new dress!

12. First Hospital Stay - Believe it or not, I was never in the hospital until I gave birth to my daughter at the age of 31. I've made up for it since then.

13. First Time on an Airplane - My family took the occasional vacation, but always in a car. When I was 16, I babysat for the Costellos. Mr. Costello owned a car dealership, so they had a huge, cool van, back in the days before pimped-out minivans. They asked me to accompany them to their vacation home by a lake in Michigan. We set out from New Hartford, NY and drove up through Canada, stopping at a hotel for the night. The next day we made the rest of the trip. I slept a lot in the van. When we got to the house, I went upstairs to put my stuff down and fell asleep. When I awoke, I came downstairs and by the time I got to the couch, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep again. It turned out that I had Mono! So they had to put me on a plane, BY MYSELF, to fly home. I was more excited than scared and really too sick to care much about anything. My Mom and my Grandma picked me up at the airport, standing at the gate wondering if I would be brought out in a wheelchair.

So many more firsts come to mind that I may have to do a follow-up...

Di

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 84)

Thirteen Photos of our Soon-To-Be New Home

It's almost Independence Day and WE are looking forward to a celebration about a month from now...our independence from renting, living out of boxes and having a part-time job making house decisions. Our house is getting close to being done!!! Many people have been asking for pictures, so here goes:

1.

I love the stone, the subtle color, the brick porch...and the blue sky ain't bad!

2.

This will be you walking up the front steps and into the front door. Once we move in, the front door will probably not be wide open all the time.

3.

Here is where I was the Homeowner from Hell. The idea was to have concrete poured and then brick pavers laid over the concrete. The concrete guy goofed and did concrete all the way. I had him take it out and start over. Sorry...but I knew what I wanted!

4.

This is going to be my study, my library, my refuge!!! I had them double insulate it for sound-proofing. There are going to be bookshelves all along that back wall. I am going to hibernate in there!

5.

This is the "Great Room." And it's going to be really great!

6.

This is the view from the great room onto the screened porch. To the left is the breakfast nook.

7.

The view of the deck and screened porch from the backyard. We bit the bullet and got the composite decking instead of wood, so no more weatherproofing and painting every few years.

8.

The cabinets in Haley's bathroom. I'm posting this because she is in Florida and hasn't been able to see any of the progress.

9.

Haley's room. There is going to be a window seat in the dormer. It's going to be lovely!

10.

This is Hurley's office. It's upstairs which means that my blogging (oh, and my work) won't be interrupted by conference calls about vegetables.

11.

This is what is known in the South as a "bonus" room. It's just a big room over the garage which is usually used as a play room. So this will be where my kids and their friends can hang out and I can yell up the stairs, "Close the door and turn the TV down!!!" and have peace and quiet in my domain.

12.

The porch is going to have iron railings, ceiling fans and hopefully big rocking chairs. So we can sit on the porch, sipping mint juleps and discussing Faulkner.

13.

Just a little free advertising for my friend John's dumpster business, Dumpsters On Demand. If you are in the Triangle, you can call him whether you are doing a huge construction project or just need to purge the garage and attic.

Hope you are having a fun weekend of fireworks and festivities!

Di

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 83)

13 Goofy Pictures of Best Friends

I've been in Florida since Monday when I drove down here to see my daughter who turned 15. We've been hanging out with our friends...her friend Casey, and my friend Stacy. Lots of hilarity and mugging for the camera. Here are a few gems:

1.

We love each other, but come on...what are you talking about?

2.

I'm not sure...but I think this has something to do with One Tree Hill.

3.

Haley with her Angry Model face!

4.

Casey showing her mother, Dr. Thompson and the rest of the world that she's eating. Casey has the "enviable" situation of needing to gain 2-3 pounds a week for the next five weeks. I wish I could help!

5.

Haley is indicating that she will help...that's just the kind of friend she is!

6.

Our shy girls.

7.

Oh...and the Moms...we WISH we could eat some of that pasta for her!

8.

Angry Model face #2.

9.

I have no idea!

10.

Twin Mac girls!

11.

Only one smile at a time.

12.

See no evil?

13.

This surely means something. I think it means they have a future in drama!!!

Di

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 82)

13 Things I Would Like to Have an Unlimited Supply Of

(I know...ended with a preposition...but it didn't sound right to say, "of which I would like to have an unlimited supply." Mea culpa.)

It goes without saying that I would like to have an unlimited supply of money, but that's not likely to happen. What I'm talking about here are the things we go through so quickly that we are forever running out of them and having to go to the store to get more. Wouldn't it be great to have an unlimited supply of:

1. Club Soda - this is my drink of choice. I always have ice and club soda in my Tervis Tumbler. Constantly hydrating. And constantly running out of club soda. So whenever I go to the store, I usually end up with about a dozen bottles in my cart.

2. And while we are at it...Tervis Tumblers! - Since I drink out of them all day, every day, they often get left at friends' houses or scattered around the house. If the dishwasher hasn't been run, then I'm stuck drinking out of, egad!, regular cups!

3. Cereal - My son can consume a huge box of cereal in nothing flat. We battle this by bringing it in from Costco in industrial-size boxes. Usually, we bring in a couple of those boxes, he looks up and says, "Oh, I'm sick of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Can we get Honey Nut Cheerios?" At this point, I usually fling the box at his head and start ranting and raving about how they only MADE one kind of cereal when I was growing up and how we couldn't even AFFORD that one kind of cereal and how we had to MAKE OUR OWN cereal from cardboard boxes. This usually encourages him to suck it up and eat the Cinnamon Toast Crunch until it's gone.

4. Milk - duh. See above.

5. Razors - specifically razors IN THE SHOWER! It doesn't help me if I have an unlimited supply of razors and I have to step out of the shower, dripping wet, to get them from underneath the sink.

6. AA Batteries - no snide innuendos about what we need THESE for. It just seems that no matter how many I buy in what gargantuan quantities, when I need them, we're all out.

7. Cordless Phone Handsets - we only have four. FOUR!!! Did you hear me??? When I was a kid we had two phones which you had to sit really close to in order to talk because you had to be connected by a CORD!!!! Now we have four, count 'em (oh, sorry, you can't count 'em because we can never find them!), four handsets. And there is never one around when you need one.

8. Golf Tees - These are not expensive items. And you can buy them in huge quantities. And usually they are everywhere...in the brim of my hat, in my pocket, in my golf purse, in the golf cart. But somehow I STILL find myself walking up to the tee, golf club in hand and unable to find a golf tee!

9. Wine - It's not that I drink THAT much myself. It's just that I never want to go to someone's house empty-handed. And I go to people's houses quite a bit. So it would be nice to have an unlimited supply of wine on hand for those occasions. I'm not a wine snob. $3 Buck Chuck is just fine for me (and most of my friends.)

10. Cell Phone Chargers - Never enough of them. Never where you need them to be.

11. Clean Towels - Somehow we have enough clothes that we don't run into "clean underwear crises" in my house. And socks? Forget it. We have enough socks to last us through the longest of laundry strikes. But clean towels are kind of essential. You wouldn't know this by the way my family treats a towel after use, generally balling it up on the floor or under the bed where it has absolutely no chance of being used again.

12. Ball-point pens - My needs are so simple. I'm not asking for rare jewels. I'm not even asking for someone to peel me a grape. But I would like one, just one, of the hundreds of pens that I purchase to be at my fingertips at my own desk!!! I buy packages of pens with such high hopes. I visualize myself with a black medium-point at hand when I need to write a check or jot down a phone number. I fill my desk drawer with them. But then it's time to write a check and the only thing I can find is a freebie from the Hampton Inn that runs out before I've finished writing the date.

13. Patience - No explanation needed.

What would you like an unlimited supply of?

Di